Rebel Mortar Attacks Kill 21 in Syria’s Aleppo

Once Syria’s largest city and effectively its financial and industrial capital, Aleppo is now a series of warring districts, with different rebel factions and the military holding neighborhoods and constantly pounding one another, with little concern for the civilian cost.

Splits on civilians and troops was unclear from today’s tolls, but the attacks also destroyed several buildings, according to Syrian state media, including the former Chamber of Industry in Aleppo’s Old City.

A lot of Aleppo’s population found itself trapped in the various districts when the fighting broke out early in the civil war, as both sides predicted a quick victory in Aleppo, resulting in a decisive victory in the war itself. Instead, the war has dragged on, with a few districts changing hands from time to time, but the city remaining divided much as the rest of the country is.